It’s no secret that during the past two months major changes have taken place with your hometown newspaper. As a family, we have spent much time carefully considering all of the renovations we would make upon purchasing the family business – all designed to allow our readers and LaSalle Parish to have the best weekly newspaper as possible.

We have been overwhelmed with the amount of support since incorporating many of the changes from day one. We have witnessed subscriptions increase more than 40%, newspaper sales up, advertising up and have actually had many outlets sell out of papers each week.

Every week we receive calls, texts and visits with people in the community that tell us how much they enjoy the paper with the changes.

The comment that we get the most concerns the size of the font, or the size of the letters/ words within the articles. We actually chose a different style font than what was previously used, one that is easier to read and thus appears larger than the previous font. And, yes, we did increase that new font’s size a bit to allow for better readability.

The new “style” of the newspaper is actually a combination of many styles found among the nation’s top, award-winning newspapers. By incorporating features like cut-out pictures, wraparound text and varying column sizes, we hope readers not only enjoy the visual format but the contents of each story.

Another change we made was with the fonts in our headlines. Studies have shown that using many different fonts in headlines actually detracts from a reader’s ability to not only read the headline but also their desire to want to read the story associated with the headline.

Most of our headlines are in the same font, except for the Sports headlines and Editorial headlines, but even on those pages each headline appears in the same font of that section.

Something else that readers may have noticed is the way in which we jump stories from one column to the next. Although it’s not at a 100% rate yet, we have made great strides in making sure that when a story continues from the end of one column that the “jump” to its continuation is easier to find for readers and flows more smoothly.

All this and more, like having consistent page headers across the top of pages (ex. Community Events, Editorials, Sports, Classifieds, Public Notices, etc.) is designed to allow the reader a better experience while reading the paper.

One thing that we try to do, but to be honest is often difficult, is have weekly articles and news stories in the same location each week. We know how important this is to readers and do our best to accommodate this feature, but with a newspaper, whose size is largely dependent upon the number of ads we receive, many times we are forced to place things not in their usual places.

As with any business, we survive and thrive because of our customers. These include our subscribers/readers and our advertisers. With that said, any suggestions or recommendations are welcomed and will be evaluated with utmost sincerity. We welcome any ideas that would improve YOUR paper.

With the actual print renovations in full force, we have now moved on to phase two of our renovation process which includes the actual newspaper building.

Many have noticed work being done on the outside of our office building, located at 1509 N. Third St., including the removal of an old, overgrown flower bed at the front of our building. This once beautiful, thriving flower bed was a pride of joy for my dad but it was in need of major renovation. So, we removed it completely and replaced it with a new design featuring beautiful flowers that will be highlighted tremendously with the white background of our building.

This past weekend, we took advantage of the office being closed on Monday for Memorial Day and began renovating the inside of the office. A fresh coat of paint is being added throughout the office and redesigned office spaces will make not only a better working environment for our employees but provide a more professional and friendly experience for everyone that stops by.

Please pardon our “mess” for a couple of weeks as we put the finishing touches on the building renovations but rest assured when completed, we’ll have added value to our little section of Jena.

We are hoping to have everything completed by July when we’ll have an official “Open House” where everyone will be invited to stop by and see the renovations.

All of this is only possible because of our subscribers/readers and advertisers. Words could never express our appreciation to each of you.

But to be truthful, our greatest gratitude is reserved for our Lord Jesus. We committed to Him over a year ago that if owning this newspaper was in His will that we would use it for His glory and honor.

So, to God be the glory for great things He has done and the great things He continues to do.